Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) Bengaluru is set to become the first airport in Asia next year to use face recognition as the boarding procedure for passengers.

According to an agreement signed by Hari Marar, CEO of Bengaluru International Airport Ltd. (BIAL), which operates KIA, and Miguel Leitmann, CEO of Vision Box, a Portuguese software firm, signed an agreement to this effect in Lisbon on September 5 to introduce face recognition technology at the airport from 2019. The agreement was signed in the presence of Indian-origin Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa and India’s Ambassador to Portugal Nandini Singla.

Voice Box, according to its website, showcased the face recognition-based passage system for the first time for Lufthansa passengers at kiosks at the Los Angeles airport in March this year – Lufthansa passengers there used a biometric boarding procedure instead of boarding passes.

“The goal of the programme is to simplify the journey by making it paperless from registration to boarding. Biometric technology will identify passengers by their face as they move across the airport, avoiding stops and the repeated presentation of boarding passes, passports or other physical identity documents,’’ Vision Box said in a release after signing the agreement with BIAL.